Breakfast Links: Week of March 7, 2011

Happy Sunday! Here’s this week's serving of the freshest Breakfast Links – our selection of noteworthy tidbits gathered from other blogs, web sites, news stories, and other curiosities that we've discovered wandering around the Twitterverse:

• Three lovely pairs of 18th century shoes. http://trouvais.com/2011/03/06/stripes-florals-and-ruffles/

• "...to the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat.": http://t.co/g4f

• "Wot d'yer call that?": Thomas Rowlandson's wonderful Lower Orders: http://bit.ly/eKU8nm

• For International Women's Day, a post about the world's first self-made millionairess, Madame Walker: http://bit.ly/eXEsbT

• Carnival at Versailles, and the appearance of the Marquise de Pompadour http://ow.ly/1bFo7X

• Improv Everywhere prank- King Philip IV signs autographs in front of own portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://is.gd/QgsgRE

• Beautiful book bindings - embroidered, royal, old & new - from the Folger Library: http://bit.ly/gQ9Ji

• Early 19th c lady's workbox in the shape of a peacock & what it symbolizes: http://cot.ag/fzLlhj

• The lack of fanfare is kinda sweet: Here's a blast from the past. A Chanel fashion show circa 1959! http://ow.ly/45VTK

• Solve an historical mystery for the National Trust: exactly how were these 1820 'card racks' used? http://bit.ly/gEvOC2

• "Old lady who lived in a shoe" - enchanting shop piece filled with tiny dolls: http://bit.ly/etaIwu #antiquedolls

• These old mugshots are things of beauty. http://t.co/w7qvvV5

• Take a Virtual Tour of the Pump Room and Adjoining... http://t.co/XJCGrr6

• Man AND Woman: The Truly Peculiar World of Chevalier d’Eon http://post.ly/1jFC3

• The Last of England http://bit.ly/ieZfRy & finished study http://bit.ly/hAAzBL & Portrait of Emma Hill http://bit.ly/kcV3K

• Wow - Smithsonian discovers color pix of 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I had ancestors there! http://bit.ly/gKAtRz

• The Wicked Squire: The tale of a 19^th century landowner and his eccentric deeds. http://bit.ly/gXbnaS

• 18th Century Advertising, When Brevity Wasn’t Key: http://ow.ly/4bKVX

Above: At Breakfast, by Laurits Andersen Ring, 1898

Ball Dress for March 1830

Loretta reports:

For 1830, I present another red dress, but French this time.  The silhouette has changed completely, and gone geometric—two triangles meeting at the pointy ends, if you believe the illustration.  Actually, the dresses are softer looking than this.  In real life, these dresses were splendid.  For an example on a live person, just scroll down on this AustenProse post link Susan sent me—past the men, please—that’s right—the brown satin number with the fur boa.

BALL  DRESS.

A DRESS of bright cherry-coloured gaze de St. Valiere, over a gros de Naples slip, to correspond. An under corsage, of white satin, is cut low, and square, and edged round the bust with narrow blond lace. The corsage of the dress is open before and behind to the centre of the waist. It turns back in a fold, which is very narrow at the bottom, but broad at the top of the bust. These folds are edged with blond lace: they are open on the shoulder, and form an elegant finish to the sleeve. Cherry-coloured ceinture, embroidered in gold, and terminated at the waist by a fall of gold fringe. Sleeve, à la Maintenon, terminated, en manchette, with very broad blond lace. The trimming of the skirt consists of a wreath of foliage, embroidered in gold at the upper edge of the hem. Coiffeure, à la Donna Maria. The hair is dressed in very full curls on the temples, and in bands and bows, which are brought very high on the summit of the head. It is ornamented with gold flowers mingled with white roses. The bouquet, à la Jardinère, placed on one side of the bosom, corresponds with that in the hair. The bracelets and ear-rings are of massive gold; the latter in the girandole form.

Belle assemblée: or, Court and fashionable magazine; containing interesting and original literature, and records of the beau-monde, 1830.

Fashionable Coming Attractions

Susan reporting:

Next week, we're trying something a bit different here at the blog. Think of it as a historical fashion mini-series. I'll be attending the "Costume Accessories: Head to Toe" symposium sponsored by Colonial Williamsburg and the Costume Society of America, and I'll be blogging each evening. Since the lecture and workshop topics will cover both men's and women's accessories (including hats, wigs, purses, handkerchiefs, muffs, pockets, stockings, jewelry, and, of course, shoes) from 1650 to 1850, there will be the proverbial embarrassment of riches for me to cover. And, as always, plenty of pictures! Look for my first post late Sunday evening.

Now, if you take a peek over to the right, you'll see we've also just posted the cover to Loretta's next historical romance, Silk is for Seduction, which will be released in July, 2011. In addition to Loretta's customary story-telling wonderfulness (I can say that not only as her friend, but as a die-hard Loretta Chase fan, too), the new book promises to be a special treat for all of us who love historical dress. The heroine is a brilliantly talented dressmaker in early 19th c. London, and I can't wait to see how many of the delicious fashion plates that Loretta has posted here on our blog will have found their way into her story. Check out Loretta's own blog for more details.

Above: Mantua-maker Sarah Woodyard displays 18th c. accessories for sale in the Margaret Hunter Shop, Colonial Williamsburg

1823 Evening Dress

Loretta reports:

Nine years after Monday’s dress, the silhouette is still vertical, though less so, and a good deal more structured.  Alas, I could not find a March fashion plate in my 1820s Google sources (some accursed thief must have removed the plates from the originals).  Instead, I must offer you February.  Happily, the colors correspond to the previous dress.

 ~~~

FASHIONS.
LONDON FASHIONS.
EVENING DRESS.

POMEGRANATE-colour crèpe lisse dress; corsage to fit. The stomacher is composed of double rouleaus of satin, rather more than an inch apart, and is continued over the shoulder to the bottom of the waist behind, and is trimmed with fine blond, the same as the tucker. The band, or sash, is of crèpe lisse edged with satin, and the ends of the rosette trimmed with blond. The sleeve is formed of three rows of small festoons of crèpe lisse, edged with satin and blond. The skirt is decorated with an elegant net-work of pomegranate and white chenille, surmounted with a row of steel beads; a steel bead is introduced at each angle of the net: beneath is a tasteful trimming of crèpe lisse in double reversed plaitings, intersected with ornamented semicircles of satin, united by a circlet composed of four satin rouleaus, with a row of small steel beads between each; a broad satin rouleau at the bottom of the dress. The hair in very full curls, and a garland of deep and pale coloured roses. Ruby necklace, armlet, bracelets, and ear-rings. Long white kid gloves, and white satin shoes. Opera cloak of rich black satin, wadded, and lined with cerulean blue sarsnet, edged with a small rouleau of blue satin: it is made very long, and with arm-holes: plain collar and large hood, which draws with blue ribbon.

— Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of arts, literature, fashions &c., 1823

Charlotte Bronte's Fantastical Diary, 1836

Susan reporting:

Diaries of famous folk usually make for fascinating reading, especially when the diary belongs to a writer. The best ones offer insights not only into the writer's projects, professional challenges, and personal relationships, but can also can serve as a "trial run" for ideas that will later evolve into more finished pieces.  The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives, an exhibition running through May 22, 2011 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, features diaries from their permanent collection, including diarists ranging from English pirate Bartholomew Sharpe (c.1650-1690) to English critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) to American dramatist Tennessee Williams (1911-1983.)  One of the most interesting diaries in the exhibition belonged to novelist (Jane Eyre) and poet Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855.)

Charlotte's childhood was not easy. After the early death of her mother and a numbing stint at a cruelly run boarding school, she returned home and became intensely close to her three surviving siblings. The Brontes were blessed with vivid imaginations as well as literary talent, and together developed elaborate fanciful kingdoms, characters, and stories to help escape the hardships and tedium of life in their father's rural rectory.

When Charlotte accepted a teaching position at the Roe Head School, she continued to turn to storytelling as a means of escape from a job and students that brought her little pleasure. An entry from an 1836 diary (included in the Morgan show), written when she was nineteen, begins by cataloguing the day's activities and frustrations, but soon blossoms into fantastical imagined scenes. It's hardly the expected work of a Victorian maiden schoolteacher, but then Charlotte's true calling would be not teaching, but writing passionately romantic fiction.

In the passage below, Charlotte describes the exotic Queen of Angria, on her "voluptuous ottoman" as she waited for her royal lover:

I had seen [this room in the palace] in the stillness of evening when the lamps so quietly and steadily burnt in the tranquil air, & when their rays fell upon but one living figure, a young lady who generally at that time appeared sitting on a low sofa, a book in her hand, her head bent over it as she read, her light brown hair dropping in loose & unwaving curls, her dress falling to the floor as she sat in sweeping folds of silk. All stirless about her except her heart, softly beating under her satin bodice & all silent except her regular and very gentle respiration...I knew why she chose to be alone at that hour, & why she kept that shadow in the golden frame to gaze on her, & why she turned sometimes to her mirrors & looked to see if her loveliness & her adornments were quite perfect...

Go here to read the complete entry and see Charlotte's handwritten page, and here for more information about the Morgan Library & Museum.

Above: Charlotte Bronte, engraved portrait by James Charles Armytage, after a painting by George Richmond. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913. Image courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum.